


Don't Carry Nothing

by angeryginger



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Description of Injuries, Homophobic Language, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Specifically injuries to eyes so, These tags will update as i go so keep yourself aware
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2018-10-25 04:37:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10756860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angeryginger/pseuds/angeryginger
Summary: In the aftermath of the Springhill Mining Disaster of 1958, Will Poindexter runs away with Derek Nurse.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Strange Lovers](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10712478) by [akadiene](https://archiveofourown.org/users/akadiene/pseuds/akadiene). 



> This is a companion/epilogue of sorts for Strange Lovers, the coal mining AU by akadiene. If you have not yet read that, it would be a good thing to go read first.

The earth began to shake.

 

 

 

 

In all Derek's life, he had never felt so unsettled. Though two nights ago, when he and Will had fought, and then been found out, and scarcely spoken since, he thought that was the limit. Surely the unmoored sensation he had felt after that night was it. And still, with the rumbling earth beneath him, he was certain his last tether had just been cut.

His hands and knees shifted against the gravel and dirt of the road, so he had fallen at some point, he supposed. He curled a fist around a handful of dust and pounded the ground once. And finally, Derek did cry.

He cried as he collected his bags from the ground and stood up to walk down the hill again.

He cried as his footfalls crunched on the road, away from the place he had called home for the last month, the place he'd laid his head for the last two.

He cried as he watched frightened housewives leaning out their windows and doors, looking toward the colliery. Looking for any signal of what would come next. Any sign from their neighbors to determine how to react. Several husbands and brothers who had come home from Derek's shift had already started a descent to the pit head. Their usually grave faces shared an expression of concern, even panic if you looked close enough in the dying light.

Derek spared a moment to be guilty for the grateful feeling that overcame him. The opportunity to leave Springhill unnoticed was too good to ignore. The boys would be busy with whatever rescue and clean-up was needed, and he could always write them to apologize anyway. If he ducked behind a few buildings and kept his head down, hopefully no one would spare a glance at the man walking resolutely in the opposite direction of the mine. Away from Springhill. Away from Ransom and Shitty, from Eric and Chowder and Jack. Away from Will. If Will was even still-- though it made Derek sick to think of that.

He would be down in the mine with his shift, Derek figured. Well, the man had survived an explosion before, and Derek had to go, even if he'd-- 

"Nurse!"

Derek's head whipped up at the sound of his name, at the sound of that voice, and his head pounded in response to the sudden movement. But there was Will Poindexter, fighting his way through the thickening crowd rushing toward the mine. He was limping, and his eye was shut with swelling and blood, so the men who had met Derek had gotten to him as well. Derek had never been as thankful to see a pain-wrecked body and worried face.

"Will. You're- shit, you're a mess." Derek could hear himself, his voice thick with tears and snot and feeling. He met Will's unbloodied eye and nearly fell again as he received the force of that look.

"We got to go. I can't stay here any longer. And you're not safe, either." Derek let the words sink in as he blinked his good eye. He cradled his wrist to his chest and looked over at Will's injuries. The pair of them must look like mirror images of hurt. To a passerby, it may even look as if they'd been the ones to hurt each other, which, well. That was true, too. "So let's get on." 

"But the mine. The ground, it-"

The sharpness of Will's gaze cut off Derek's arguments, but his face softened again as he looked at the waves of people making their way downhill. "There's others still here to help. They'll do what needs doing. As for me, not one man I care for is down in that pit." He turned to face Derek again. "Not one. How about you, Nurse?"

Derek couldn't help but smile at that, though his lip had split and the cut bled again at the stretch. "No, I suppose not."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is obviougly to be continued. I was warring with myself about whether I should write the entire thing in one shot or post it as I go. My impatience and need for validation won out.
> 
> When Karolyn (akadiene and fatlardo on tumblr) and I started talking about Strange Lovers, I immediately had a lot of feelings about how she was choosing to end it. It's one of the braver choices I've seen made in a fanfic, and I am immensely envious of her because she has stuck to her convictions about it. I'm not so brave. I wanted an epilogue of sorts, because I have to know what happens. So that's what this is. 
> 
> I have a lot of this outlined, but I'm writing in my typical slow af way, so this will likely be a slower update schedule.
> 
> Title is from "This Train" by Sister Rosetta Tharpe


	2. Chapter 2

Will took care to lead Derek through the back roads and alleys he could on the way to his and Millie’s. There was no one to look for them, no one who saw or tried to stop them.

“Camilla. She'll be there, I suppose?”

Will looked over his shoulder at Derek, one hand holding a bag and the other clutched to his side. His swelling lip and eye looked angry against his skin, paler than usual. Worried and sick and hurt.

“I suppose, yes.”

Derek looked down along the road, away from the house. “I'll just go along and meet you at the station, then. No sense in me causing any more trouble.” 

“No.” The thought of leaving Nurse to go without him made Will's already sore stomach go sour. “No. She knows anyhow. At least she thinks she knows, but it doesn't matter. And she's leaving!” He was almost shouting now. “She and Jack and Nance are gone soon, to the coast. Millie won't say a word to nobody about me. Come on.”

Derek nodded, and they went on.

When they stepped up to the house, Millie appeared in the window with wet cheeks and Nancy, looking worried for her ma, on her hip.

“William Jacob, oh thank God!” The door flung open and Will had his arms full. He dropped the suitcase he'd been carrying for Derek and clung to Millie and dropped a kiss onto Nancy's head, despite the complaint from his bruised stomach and the pain in his jaw.

Derek hung back at the bottom of the step, eyes cast down. His tears had dried by now, but the tracks left on his face still glimmered under the porch light. That feeling, the burning he used to think was rage, resentment. That feeling came back and suddenly Will could barely breathe. He stepped back from Millie’s embrace, caught Derek's sleeve in his grasp, and entered his home for the last time.

“Will, no chance are you walking away without telling me what's going on. I felt the mine, and you're on shift, but you're here, and _he's_ here. And, God, what happened to the both of you?”

“I… well. We--”

“It’s my fault.”

Will spun on his good leg and leveled a look at Derek, who alternated looking at his shoes and into Millie’s face, before turning back. “No, it goddamn is not. He got a beating, and then so did I. We… we've been-- Well, you suspected anyhow, Millie, and you're right, of course. And now Nurse don't have a job and I'm Billy Cocksucker--”

“Will!”

“--and we have to go. We have to leave. Tonight, for New York.” He turned back. “Right? I'm still invited, ain't I?” Derek's eyes met his, finally. But there was something careful there, too. Scared. Will brought the hand holding his sleeve down to his wrist, and tried to put weight in his words the way Derek could, when he read his poetry out loud or said he didn't want sundown to come. “With Nancy and Millie gone, and you off writing, I won't have anything for me, here. Can I come with you?”

And just like that, Derek was crying again. But Will saw laughter in it, too.

“I suppose you may as well.”

“Right!”

Startled, Will turned to Millie, and saw Derek do the same.

“I've got to get Nancy to bed. You,” she said, pointing at Will's soiled clothes, “need to wash. Lord, and pack. And you,” she turned to Derek, “need some proper cleaning on that eye. Let me get her down and I'll help.”

Still holding Derek's wrist, Will looked dumbly at his stained coveralls.

“Well? You boys got to get out first thing, right? Go on!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been months, but I had a surge of energy and got another little chapter out! They're almost out of Springhill, though.
> 
> Millie and Will are going to have some kind of chat next chapter.
> 
> I'm going to try to update this at least once every two weeks.


End file.
